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!  B  REPRINT  AND  CIRCULAR  SERIES 

OF  THE 

NATIONAL  RESEARCH 
COUNCIL 


INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH 

By  Frank  B.  Jewett 
Chief  Engineer,  Western  Electric  Company,  Inc. 


Published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Canadian  Institute, 
1918,  vol.  12,  pages  117-132 


Announcement  Concerning  Publications 

of  the 
National  Research  Council 


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REPRINT  AND  CIRCULAR  SERIES 

f  OF  THE 

NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL 

NUMBER  4 


INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH* 

BY  FRANK  B.  JEWETT 
.CHIEF  ENGINEER, .WESTERN  ELECTRIC  COMPANY,  INC. 

In  appearing  before  a  Canadian  audience  to  discuss  matters  pertain- 
ing to  the  promotion  of  research  and,  in  particular,  to  its  promotion  as 
related  to  the  industries,  I  have  to  confess  a  lack  of  that  knowledge  of 
conditions  in  Canada  which  should  be  the  basis  of  any  constructive  con- 
sideration of  the  topic.  Fundamentally,  the  conditions  are  everywhere 
much  the  same  but  specifically  there  are  great  differences  which  arise  in 
different  countries  and  different  parts  of  the  same  country  because  of 
different  educational  and  industrial  needs  or  because  of  the  different 
treatment  or  lack  of  treatment  which  the  Legislative  bodies  have  ac- 
corded. In  view  of  my  unfamiliarity  with  the  present  situation  in  Can- 
ada, I  would  ask  you  to  consider  what  I  have  to  say  as  being  the  result 
of  my  observations  in  the  United  States  and  of  being  applicable  specifi- 
cally only  to  the  conditions  which  now  obtain  there. 

When  a  man  is  called  upon  to  testify  as  to  facts  or  opinions  it  is,  I 
believe,  customary  for  his  testimony  to  be  introduced  by  a  statement  of 
facts  intended  to  establish  his  right  to  be  heard  and  have  an  opinion  on 
the  matter  in  hand.  Since  the  matter  before  us  is  at  present  one  in  which 
many  diverse  views  may  be  held  and  diverse  courses  of  action  advocated, 
it  seems  to  me  proper  that  this  judicial  custom  should  be  applied  in  my 
own  case  in  order  that  you  may  have  some  basis  for  deciding  upon  the 
weight  you  may  wish  to  attach  to  any  opinion  or  suggestions  which  I 
may  make. 

Largely  through  chance,  my  training  and  experience  have  been  such 
as  to  give  me  something  more  than  a  dilettante's  knowledge  of  four  of 
the  fields  which  are  factors  in  the  problems  which  we  are  here  to  discuss. 

*  Paper  read  before  The  Royal  Canadian  Institute,  Toronto,  Canada,  February  8,  1919. 
Reprinted  from  the  Transaflinm  of  the  Royal  Canadian  Institute,  12,  117-132,  1918. 

1 


2  INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT 

These  fields  are  those  of  (a)  so  called  scientific  or  pure  research,  most 
largely  exemplified  in  our  universities  and  higher  institutions  of  learning; 
(b)  engineering;  (c)  industrial  research  and  (d)  general  business.  Trained 
as  an  engineer  in  a  technical  school  having  more  or  less  the  standard 
scholastic  ideas  of  the  time  as  to  the  proper  form  of  engineering  educa- 
tion, chance  threw  me  in  the  way  of  spending  four  years  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago  in  physical,  mathematical  and  chemical  research  under 
Prof.  A.  A.  Michelson,  one  of  the  world's  greatest  living  physicists — a 
Nobel  prize  winner.  This  novitiate  under  the  tutelage  of  a  master 
seeker  after  truth  in  the  realm  of  physical  science  completed,  I  again  took 
up  my  engineering  profession  in  the  form  of  graduate  study  and  teaching 
at  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  and  had  no  more  than  com- 
pleted this  work  when  chance  again  threw  me  back  into  the  research 
field — this  time  on  the  industrial  side  and  for  what  appears  to  be  a  life 
pursuit. 

For  the  past  fifteen  years  I  have  been  intimately  associated  with  the 
research  and  engineering  activities  of  the  Bell  Telephone  System,  first 
as  the  transmission  engineer  of  the  American  Telephone  and  Telegraph 
Company  and  for  the  past  seven  years  as  assistant  chief  engineer  and 
chief  engineer  of  the  Western  Electric  Company,  Incorporated,  which 
is  the  research,  development  and  manufacturing  part  of  the  Bell  System. 
During  this  time,  which  spans  nearly  the  whole  of  the  period  of  organ- 
ized industrial  research  in  America,  the  entire  spirit  and  atmosphere  of 
engineering  work  in  the  telephone  field  has  changed  from  one  of  inventive 
experimentation  and  rule  of  thumb  methods  to  one  in  which  the  princi- 
ples of  scientific  research  govern  practically  every  course  of  action.  Dur- 
ing this  period  the  research  laboratories  of  the  System,  which  were  among 
the  earliest  to  be  established  in  this  country,  have  grown  from  one  or 
two  back  rooms  in  an  old  building  until  they  now  occupy  nearly  a  half 
million  feet  of  floor  space  in  a  building  especially  designed  for  their  ac- 
commodation. At  the  same  time  the  staff  has  grown  from  one  or  two 
trained  men  to  one  of  a  number  of  thousand  trained  men  and  women, 
a  large  number  of  whom  are  graduates  of  leading  research  universities 
and  laboratories  throughout  the  world. 

Having  attempted  to  qualify,  I  will  now  try  to  give  you  a  picture  of 
the  industrial  research  situation  and  its  problems  as  I  see  it. 

It  needs  no  statement  from  me  to  apprise  you  of  the  fact  that  research 
and  particularly  industrial  research,  is  very  actively  in  people's  minds 
and  before  the  public  at  the  present  time.  Newspapers,  magazines  and 
periodicals  are  continually  publishing  articles  on  it;  vast  numbers  of 


INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT  3 

people  are  talking,  more  or  less  knowingly,  about  it ;  and  industries  and 
governmental  departments,  which  up  to  a  few  years  ago  had  hardly 
heard  of  industrial  research,  are  embarking  or  endeavoring  to  embark 
upon  the  most  elaborate  research  projects.  While  the  conditions  which 
now  exist  largely  through  the  stimulus  of  war  activities  are  particularly 
favorable  to  a  vigorous  and  healthy  growth  of  both  academic  and  indus- 
trial research  if  properly  directed,  they  are  equally  favorable  to  the 
waste  of  much  human  energy  and  huge  sums  of  money  if  sanity,  clear 
thinking  and  a  proper  sense  of  proportion  in  initiative  and  legislation  are 
neglected. 

That  much  good  and  enormous  advances  in  the  industries  of  a  country 
will  result  from  a  proper  application  of  research  methods  to  their  prob- 
lems cannot  be  denied  by  any  one  who  has  had  experience  in  this  field. 
It  is,  I  think,  equally  undeniable,  however,  that  a  very  grave  danger  con- 
fronts the  industries  and  the  nations  in  some  of  the  misconceptions  of 
what  is  involved  in  industrial  research  which  seem  to  be  prevalent 
throughout  the  world  at  the  present  time.  During  the  past  five  years 
there  has  been  so  much  talk  about  the  wonderful  results  to  be  obtained 
in  the  application  of  industrial  research,  so  much  exploitation  of  what 
Germany  was  able  to  do  in  this  line,  and  so  much  exploitation  of  the  ex- 
tent to  which  the  Allied  countries  have  been  able  to  equal  and  surpass 
Germany  that  grave  misconceptions  have  arisen  in  educational,  indus- 
trial and  governmental  circles — misconceptions  which  if  not  corrected 
are  sure  to  cause  trouble  and  bring  about  a  reaction  which  for  a  time  will 
tend  to  drag  research  down  from  the  high  place  it  should  occupy  in  the 
realm  of  human  affairs. 

The  results  of  the  research  activities  throughout  the  war  have  been 
simply  astounding,  even  to  men  whose  whole  training  and  experience 
have  been  along  this  line.  Few,  however,  realize  the  exact  price  paid  for 
these  results  or  appreciate  fully  the  reactions  on  the  orderly  peace-time 
life  of  the  nations  brought  about  by  the  diversion  of  our  educational  and 
research  energies  toward  the  one  common  purpose  of  human  destruction. 
With  the  picture  of  recent  scientific  war- time  achievements  before  us,  it  is 
difficult  to  realize  that  in  setting  up  the  machinery  to  accomplish  these 
achievements  we  at  the  same  time  set  up  the  machinery  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  advances  beyond  a  certain  point.  By  robbing  the  colleges,  uni- 
versities and  industries  of  their  trained  scientists  and  employing  them  in 
war's  scientific  sweat-shop,  it  was  inevitable  that  stupendous  results 
should  be  obtained.  By  so  doing,  however,  we  cut  off  completely  the 
possibility  of  further  advances  into  the  realm  of  the  unknown  and  like- 


4  INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT 

wise  destroyed  our  chance  of  developing  new  men  to  carry  on  the  inves- 
tigational  work  of  the  old,  when  the  latter  were  worn  out. 

Had  the  war  continued  much  longer  under  the  conditions  which  ob- 
tained during  its  maximum  violence,  it  seems  clear  that  it  would  have  re- 
solved itself  into  a  struggle  in  which  mere  mechanical  ingenuity  would 
have  supplanted  everything  of  a  really  research  nature — this  because  of 
the  fact  that  while  war  stimulates  very  greatly  a  clever,  inventive  inge- 
nuity in  men  it  cannot  provide  the  atmosphere  nor  surroundings  which 
make  for  developments  in  the  realm  of  the  unknown.  During  the  war  I 
have  derived  much  pleasure  from  an  intimate  personal  contact  with  many 
of  the  most  prominent  scientific  men  of  the  allied  countries  and  while  they 
were,  even  to  the  end,  working  effectively  there  was  every  evidence  that 
the  strain  was  telling  and  that  their  productivity  could  not  be  long 
continued.  Further,  there  was  no  influx  of  equally  good  new  men. 

While  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  know  the  exact  situation  elsewhere  in 
the  world,  I  do  know  that  we  in  the  United  States  had  early  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1918  arrived  at  the  state  where  scientific  man-producing  machin- 
ery no  longer  existed.  Practically  all  of  our  investigators  and  those  best 
competent  to  develop  a  new  generation  of  investigators  were  somewhere 
in  the  service,  but  even  if  many  of  them  had  remained  in  their  labora- 
tories there  was  no  human  material  for  them  to  develop.  The  young  men 
of  college  or  university  calibre  not  already  in  the  Army  or  the  Navy  were 
in  military  training  camps  or  schools  where  they  were  being  crammed 
with  a  smattering  of  the  sciences  to  render  them  efficient  in  the  handling 
of  the  thousand  and  one  details  of  a  modern  military  establishment. 

But  despite  all  these  tangible  evidences  of  the  alarming  decrease  in 
the  essential  raw  human  material,  projects  were  being  started  daily  for 
the  establishment  of  industrial  research  laboratories  in  connection  with 
all  manner  of  civilian  and  military  organizations.  The  common  opinion 
seemed  to  be  that  all  that  was  necessary  was  to  construct  a  building  or 
buildings,  put  in  some  machinery  and  instruments,  gather  together  a  few 
human  beings,  label  the  whole  a  research  laboratory  and  proceed  to 
'research.' 

I  venture  to  say  that  there  are  possibly  ten  times  as  many  so-called 
research  laboratories  and  more  than  ten  times  as  many  so-called  research 
investigators  in  the  United  States  today  as  there  were  three  years  ago 
and  yet  during  that  time  practically  no  real  research  men  have  been  pro- 
duced. Every  day  I  meet  men  or  groups  of  men  who  have  acquired  a 
certain  superficial  knowledge  of  research  matters  and  a  limited  vocab- 
ulary of  its  terms  and  who  talk  convincingly  of  the  future  of  industrial 


INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  P.  B.  JEWETT  5 

research  and  of  the  enormous  material  benefits  to  be  derived  from  the 
extension  of  this  form  of  activity.  They  fail  utterly  to  realize  that  the 
mere  dubbing  of  a  man  by  -some  research  title  does  not  make  him  any 
more  a  real  research  investigator  than  sewing  a  pair  of  wings  on  a  tunic 
makes  a  man  a  military  aviator.  They  also  fail  to  realize  that  even  under 
the  most  favorable  conditions  as  to  human  material,  the  mere  getting 
together  of  a  group  of  men  does  not  bring  a  research  laboratory  into 
being.  Finally,  it  is  clear  from  the  very  fact  of  their  being  ready  to  em- 
bark upon  the  project  that  they  do  not  appreciate  that  while  industrial 
research,  properly  organized  and  carried  out  with  the  right  kind  of 
human  material  working  in  an  atmosphere  that  is  sympathetic  to  indus- 
trial research  development,  has  proved  enormously  valuable,  it  is  under 
other  auspices  a  sink  for  money  and  hopes  which  is  second  only  to  a  salted 
gold  mine. 

As  an  ardent  advocate  and  firm  believer  in  the  promotion  of  scientific 
and  industrial  research  as  a  means  of  bettering  the  condition  of  our 
people,  I  would  feel  myself  derelict  in  appearing  before  an  audience  of 
this  kind  if  I  did  not  sound  a  note  of  warning  about  the  dangers  I  see  and 
at  the  same  tune  endeavor  to  set  before  you  constructively  the  conclusions 
which  twenty  years  of  active  participation  in  the  field  of  scientific  and 
industrial  research  have  led  me  to  feel  are  essential  to  a  vigorous  and 
hardy  growth  of  this  form  of  commercial  activity. 

You  will  remember  that  earlier  in  the  paper  I  mentioned  the  fact  that 
in  fifteen  years  the  scientific  research  activities  of  the  Bell  Telephone  Sys- 
tem have  grown  from  practically  nothing  to  huge  laboratories,  with  out- 
posts for  specific  problems  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States  and  even 
in  foreign  countries.  In  addition  to  being  what  may  be  thought  an  in- 
teresting statement  of  fact,  the  salient  thing  to  be  understood  is  that  the 
research  activities  have  grown  and  not  been  formed  in  any  haphazard  or 
over-night  fashion.  This  fact  is  equally  true  of  every  large  successful 
industrial  research  organization  with  which  I  am  acquainted.  Even 
today  and  despite  the  aggregation  of  human  and  material  resources 
which  have  placed  our  laboratories  in  the  front  rank  of  industrial  research 
organizations,  there  are  on  my  list  a  large  number  of  problems  which  we 
are  not  in  a  position  to  undertake.  These  problems,  which  are  directly 
and  solely  in  the  communication  field,  are  problems  of  major  interest  to 
the  industry  and  are  of  such  a  nature  that  we  are  absolutely  sure  they 
can  be  solved  with  positive  results  of  inestimable  value  to  the  telephone 
and  telegraph  companies  and  to  the  public  at  large,  provided  only  that 
their  solution  can  be  obtained  through  the  application  of  well  organized 


6  INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT 

industrial  research*.  Why  then  do  these  problems  lie  essentially  un- 
touched? Is  it  because  of  a  lack  of  material  facilities,  of  money,  of  cour- 
age to  go  ahead,  or  the  feeling  that  these  particular  researches  will  not 
recommend  themselves  to  the  business  men  who  are  responsible  for  the 
commercial  destinies  of  the  telephone  and  telegraph  systems?  It  is  none 
of  these.  There  is  no  lack  of  money,  no  lack  of  material  facilities,  no  lack 
of  courage,  no  lack  of  approval  on  the  part  of  directors,  for  we  have  long 
ago  learned  that  material  facilities  are  easy  to  obtain,  that  money  spent 
in  properly  directed  fundamental  research,  large  though  the  sums  may  be, 
is  small  in  comparison  with  the  direct  and  indirect  returns,  and  finally 
that  apparent  courage  in  deciding  to  go  ahead  is  not  so  very  courageous 
after  all  when  it  is  exercised  by  men  of  ability,  training  and  experience 
who  have  shown  themselves  competent  in  their  own  fields,  whether 
these  fields  be  within  the  laboratories  or  within  the  precincts  of  the  execu- 
tive offices. 

What  then  is  it  that  should  stop  us  from  an  immediate  attack  if  we 
are  so  sure  of  the  ultimate  result?  The  answer  is  the  simple,  three-letter 
word  'men.'  Not  mere  human  male  bipeds  but  men  endowed  by  nature 
with  at  least  a  modicum  of  the  spirit  of  scientific  research  to  which  has 
been  added,  either  through  fortune,  personal  initiative,  parental  solici- 
tude or  a  far-sighted  policy  on  the  part  of  the  State,  that  orderly  training 
and  opportunity  for  expansion  of  intellect  without  which  natural  talents 
are  of  little  avail. 

Our  case  is  typical  of  the  situation  which  confronts  every  industrial 
research  organization  on  the  continent.  The  matter  of  an  adequate 
supply  of  properly  equipped  and  trained  investigators  and  directors  of 
research  is  absolutely  vital  to  the  growth  of  industrial  research  and  I 
am  as  sure  as  one  can  be  of  anything  in  the  world  that  all  of  our  visions 
of  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  a  large  expansion  of  industrial  reseach 
will  come  to  naught  if  we  fail  to  realize  or  neglect  the  fact  that  in  the 
last  analysis  we  are  dependent  absolutely  upon  the  mental  productivity 
of  men,  and  men  alone,  and  that  we  must  in  consequence  provide  ade- 
quately for  a  continuous  supply  of  well  trained  workers. 

While  there  is  at  the  present  time  some  diversity  of  opinion  among  the 
directors  of  industrial  research  as  to  the  proper  methods  to  be  followed 
in  an  industrial  research  laboratory,  there  is  unanimity  on  the  point 
that  industrial  research  organizations  are  essentially  man-consuming  as 
distinguished  from  man-producing  agencies.  The  very  fact  that  they 
are  industrial  and  commercial  in  nature  means  that  in  the  aggregate  the 
performance  of  industrial  research  laboratories  must  be  money  making 


INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT  ^ 

rather  than  money  consuming  if  they  are  to  continue  to  exist.  For  this 
reason  they  cannot  assemble  a  staff  of  investigators  to  each  of  whom  is 
given  a  perfectly  free  hand  with  regard  to  the  scope  and  character  of 
his  work.  There  is  unquestionably  some  ground  for  debate  as  to  the  ex- 
tent to  which  it  may  be  desirable  to  go  in  permitting  or  even  stimulating 
individual  workers  in  an  industrial  research  laboratory  to  undertake  the 
investigation  of  problems  not  directly  involved  in  the  interests  of  the 
company  or  business  of  which  the  laboratory  is  a  part.  Personal  equa- 
tion, the  relation  of  any  particular  laboratory  to  outside  interests  and 
numerous  other  factors  all  enter  to  prevent  the  formulation  of  any  hard 
and  fast  rule  in  this  matter.  To  me  it  is  self-evident,  however,  that  the 
great  bulk  of  the  work  in  any  industrial  research  laboratory  must  be 
intimately  along  the  lines  of  the  business  with  which  it  is  associated  and 
must  be  mainly  of  a  utilitarian  character  with  results  measurable  by 
economic  standards  rather  than  purely  scientific  or  educational  with  re- 
sults measured  in  terms  of  increased  general  knowledge  or  the  production 
of  trained  men. 

I  have  said  that  all  of  us  who  have  had  any  considerable  experience 
in  this  field  seem  to  be  a  unit  as  to  the  necessity  for  stimulating  and 
maintaining  proper  sources  of  supply  of  our  trained  workers.  There  is, 
however,  not  the  same  unanimity  with  regard  to  the  best  method  to  be 
employed  for  bringing  about  the  desired  result.  At  the  present  time  the 
conditions  are  sufficiently  formative  and  undeveloped  so  that  many  sug- 
gestions and  schemes  can  be  made.  A  good  many  men  who  have  had 
broad  experience  in  the  development  of  industrial  research  feel  that  the 
best  results  will  in  the  long  run  be  obtained  by  fostering  a  trial  of  almost 
any  suggestion  which  is  not  an  obviously  foolish  one — this  on  the  theory 
that  by  so  doing  we  will  accumulate  rapidly  the  data  and  experience  from 
which  definite  conclusions  can  be  crystallized.  Others,  and  I  am  one  of 
this  number,  feel  that  the  information  now  available  is  sufficient  to 
permit  of  drawing  certain  conclusions  and  concentrating  our  efforts  on 
the  trial  on  a  large  scale  of  a  limited  number  of  experiments  in  the  direc- 
tions which  seem  to  give  most  promise  of  producing  the  requisite  number 
and  kind  of  trained  investigators  to  meet  the  increasing  needs  of  industry. 

From  whatever  point  we  view  the  problem  it  seems  clear  that  the 
agency  for  producing  the  trained  investigator  must  be  outside  and  dis- 
tinct from  the  industrial  research  field.  It  seems  reasonably  clear  also 
that  this  agency  must  be  in  some  way  intimately  associated  with  the 
field  of  so-called  pure  scientific  research,  that  is,  the  form  of  research 
intended  primarily  to  extend  the  bounds  of  human  knowledge  as  dis- 


8  INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT 

tinguished  from  that  form  of  research  intended  primarily  to  attain  a 
certain  desirable  objective  through  the  Application  of  scientific  research 
methods.  Two  courses  only  appear  promising: 

1.  The  establishment  of  a  limited  number  of  large  research  labora- 
tories which  are  endowed  either  by  the  State  or  other  private  or  corporate 
munificence,  or 

2.  The  stimulation  of  scientific  research  in  a  more  diverse  fashion 
through  the  universities  and  higher  educational  institutions. 

Under  the  first  of  these  plans  the  institutions,  in  addition  to  their 
work  of  extending  the  bounds  of  human  knowledge  through  scientific 
research,  would  serve  as  a  sort  of  finishing  school  for  the  training  of  men 
who  have  already  received  a  general  scientific  education  elsewhere  and 
who  are  destined  ultimately  to  engage  either  in  the  type  of  research  car- 
ried on  in  such  institutions  or  more  largely  in  the  field  of  industrial  re- 
search. The  success  of  this  plan  on  a  scale  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the 
State  would  appear  to  involve  a  concentration  at  the  limited  number  of 
research  institutions  of  practically  all  of  the  country's  leading  scientists 
qualified  to  engage  in  fundamental  research  or  in  the  proper  instruction 
•f  men  for  the  industrial  field.  This  would  tend  largely  to  deprive  the 
colleges  and  universities  of  the  services  of  all  the  men  with  a  research 
trend  of  mind  and  leave  them  with  an  atmosphere  wholly  pedagogical  in 
character.  Far  more  serious  than  the  mere  absence  from  the  university 
faculty  of  the  advanced  thinkers,  would  be  the  fact  that  such  absence 
would  bring  about  a  condition  in  which  there  was  nothing  to  stimulate 
properly  qualified  young  men  to  take  up  scientific  research  as  a  life  pur- 
suit. Also  such  concentration  of  fundamental  research  in  a  limited  num- 
ber of  large  endowed  institutions  would,  I  think,  tend  inevitably  to  di- 
minish rather  than  increase  the  wide-spread  feeling  that  the  progress 
of  the  country  was  intimately  associated  with  the  healthy  and  vigorous 
growth  of  scientific  research. 

Considerations  such  as  these  tend  toward  an  adoption  of  the  second 
alternative,  which  is  a  delegation  to  the  properly  qualified  universities 
and  institutions  of  higher  education  of  the  duty  of  training  the  men 
who  are  later  to  carry  on  the  industrial  research  of  the  country.  Such 
a  plan  does  not  and  should  not  contemplate  making  every  so-called  uni- 
versity or  college  a  center  of  research.  Financial  and  legislative  assist- 
ance, of  whatever  form,  should  be  reserved  for  those  institutions  which 
are  equipped  or  can  be  equipped  with  the  necessary  men  and  facilities 
for  carrying  on  properly  the  work  of  research  and  training.  In  order 
that  the  spirit  of  research  and  the  direct  benefits  which  accrue  from  it 


INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT  9 

may  become  generally  known,  the  institutions  which  are  chosen  for 
carrying  on  this  work  should,  so  far  as  possible,  be  located  where  they 
can  draw  from  the  best  elements  of  the  population  and  where  their  work 
will  be  under  the  immediate  scrutiny  of  the  citizens.  While  energies 
should  not  be  scattered  through  diffuse  grants  of  aid,  no  stone  should  be 
left  unturned  to  stimulate  the  growth  of  a  research  atmosphere  in  any 
institution  which  can  by  any  chance  aspire  to  qualify  as  a  center. 

In  the  United  States  the  direction  of  efforts  tending  to  promote  the 
progress  of  fundamental  and  industrial  research  and  the  training  of 
properly  qualified  men  is  centering  in  the  National  Research  Council. 
This  body,  which  is  composed  of  the  leading  scientific  men  of  the  coun- 
try from  all  branches  of  science  and  from  all  of  the  activities,  civil,  and 
military,  educational  and  commercial,  was  formed  in  the  summer  of  1916 
by  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences  at  the  request  of  the  President. 
Because  of  the  fact  that  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences  is  the  only 
nationally  chartered  scientific  body  and  because  of  the  further  fact  that 
the  President  has  by  proclamation  empowered  the  National  Research 
Council  to  undertake  certain  broad  duties,  it  is  the  agency  best  qualified 
to  handle  the  complex  problem  which  is  to  confront  us  in  the  years  to 
come. 

During  the  war  the  efforts  of  the  National  Research  Council  were,  of 
course,  directed  to  the  immediate  problems  in  hand  but  with  the  signing 
of  the  armistice  and  the  cessation  of  hostilities  broad  peace-time  plans 
which  had  lain  dormant  were  taken  up  anew,  and,  with  some  modifica- 
tions over  the  arrangement  initially  contemplated,  the  National  Re- 
search Council  is  actively  at  work  on  plans  which  bid  fair  to  produce 
extremely  beneficial  results.  The  fact  that  the  Council  is  composed  of 
the  leading  men  of  the  country,  who  are  interested  in  research  and  the 
results  of  its  commercial  application  and  who  are  personally  active  in 
the  affairs  of  the  Council,  makes  for  the  attainment  of  positive  construc- 
tive results  not  otherwise  to  be  hoped  for. 

Two  main  problems  are  at  present  before  the  Council.  One  of  these 
is  the  organization  of  the  proper  means  for  promoting  fundamental  re- 
search on  a  high  standard  of  achievement  and  the  correlated  problem 
of  training  a  sufficient  number  of  properly  selected  men.  The  other 
problem  is  that  of  promoting  the  interests  of  industrial  research. 

In  considering  these  two  activities  of  the  National  Research  Council 
it  should  be  understood  that  the  work  of  the  Council  is  purely  in  the  di- 
rection of  formulating  general  policies,  correlating  and  concentrating 
efforts  in  any  desired  direction,  and  acting  as  a  general  clearing  house 


10  INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT 

and  advisory  body  for  the  multifarious  research  activities  of  the  country. 
There  is  no  thought  or  intention  of  having  the  Research  Council  attempt 
to  undertake  or  supervise  specific  research  work  itself.  In  the  carrying 
on  of  its  functions  as  at  present  proposed,  each  general  activity  will  be 
in  the  hands  of  a  special  group  whose  primary  interest  is  in  that  par- 
ticular field.  Thus,  for  example,  the  group  in  the  National  Research 
Council  which  is  interested  in  the  relations  of  the  Council  to  engineering 
and  the  applications  of  industrial  research  to  engineering  will  be,  in  effect, 
a  group  composed  principally  of  and  from  the  great  national  engineering 
societies  and  under  the  direct  supervision  of  their  governing  boards. 

Both  of  the  alternative  schemes  noted  above  for  handling  the  matter 
of  fundamental  research  and  training  were  carefully  considered  and  at 
present  efforts  are  being  directed  along  the  line  which  utilizes  the  exist- 
ing educational  facilities  of  the  country  as  against  the  centralized  re- 
search laboratory  idea.  This  decision  does  not,  of  course,  mean  neces- 
sarily the  abandonment  of  the  idea  of  further  large  fundamental  research 
organizations,  such  as  the  Rockefeller  Institute,  but  it  does  mean  that 
at  the  present  time  there  is  a  feeling  that  such  institutions  should  be 
looked  upon  as  a  means  for  the  attainment  of  a  specific  end  rather  than 
as  part  of  a  nation  wide  machine. 

The  plan  now  actively  under  consideration  and  which  is  of  most  in- 
terest to  those  engaged  in  industrial  research  contemplates  the  establish- 
ment of  a  number  of  well-paid  research  professorships  in  physics  and 
chemistry  in  as  many  of  the  leading  universities  as  can  qualify  for  the 
proper  carrying  on  of  the  work.  These  professorships,  if  established, 
would  require  that  the  holder  devote  the  major  part  of  his  time  to  the 
carrying  on  or  direction  of  research  work  and  that  but  a  limited  part  of 
his  tune  be  allotted  to  teaching.  In  addition  to  these  research  professor- 
ships, the  plan  contemplates  the  provision  of  research  fellowships  in 
physics  and  chemistry,  to  be  awarded  for  a  period  of  years  not  to  exceed 
five,  to  men  who  have  shown  themselves  fitted  for  such  fellowships.  As 
the  requirements  for  fellowship  award  would  tend  toward  the  selection 
of  mature  men  as  distinguished  from  those  but  recently  graduated,  the 
plan  provides  for  a  fellowship  emolument  sufficiently  high  so  that  the 
recipient,  even  if  married  and  with  a  family,  would  be  in  a  position  to 
accept  and  devote  his  entire  time  to  research  investigation,  save  only  a 
limited  amount  of  tune  which  he  might  be  encouraged  to  devote  to  the 
instruction  of  younger  research  men. 

While  it  is  as  yet  too  early  to  predict  how  this  plan  will  finally  work 
out,  it  seems  reasonably  certain  that  the  necessary  funds  for  the  research 


INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT  11 

fellowships  will  be  available.  The  main  question  appears  to  be  whether 
the  qualified  universities  will  in  all  cases  be  able  to  provide  the  funds 
necessary  for  the  research  professorships  and  more  particularly  with  regard 
to  the  number  of  men  of  research  professorship  grade  who  are  actually 
available.  There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  the  successful  working  out 
of  some  such  plan  as  this  would  be  of  very  great  value  to  the  industries 
and  the  cause  of  industrial  research.  It  would  introduce  the  spirit  of 
research  into  the  universities  on  a  plane  far  higher  than  it  has  hitherto 
occupied  in  America  and  by  so  doing  would  react  in  a  stimulative  way  on 
the  younger  men  in  the  university  or  college — a  group  from  which  the 
future  fundamental  and  industrial  research  workers  must  come.  The 
fact  that  many  of  the  research  fellowships  would  be  held  by  men  who  had 
made  a  mark  for  themselves  in  industrial  research  would  make  concrete 
the  fact  that  fundamental  research  and  a  doctor  of  philosophy  degree 
can  lead  to  something  other  than  a  pedagogical  career,  an  impression 
which  I  am  sorry  to  say  has  been  the  prevailing  one  in  America  for  many 
years. 

That  the  industries  of  the  United  States  are  more  than  casually  inter- 
ested in  the  work  which  the  National  Research  Council  is  undertaking  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  already  large  sums  of  money  have  been  con- 
tributed by  corporations,  industries,  and  individuals  toward  the  carrying 
on  of  the  work  of  the  Council.  For  example,  to  cite  a  case  with  which  I 
am  personally  familiar,  the  American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company 
has  recently  appropriated  $25,000  a  year  for  a  period  of  five  years  to  be 
used  by  the  National  Research  Council  in  its  work  of  promoting  indus- 
trial research  in  the  United  States  and  in  educating  business  organiza- 
tions to  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  it.  This  is  but  one  of  numerous 
tangible  evidences  that  industries  which  have  eaten  of  the  fruit  of  a  real 
industrial  research  department  pronounce  it  good  and  are  desirous  of 
stimulating  a  further  and  larger  consumption  of  the  same  fruit. 

It  may  seem  to  you  that  in  the  foregoing  I  have  gone  rather  far  afield 
from  the  subject  matter  of  industrial  research  and  its  promotion  and 
application  and  have  emphasized  too  strongly  the  fundamental  research 
and  training  aspects  of  the  problems.  My  reasons  for  this  have  been 
twofold;  first,  because  there  is  a  very  large  and  rapidly  growing  apprecia- 
tion among  industrial  research  workers  of  the  fact  that  this  phase  of  the 
matter  is  of  vital  importance  to  them,  an  appreciation  of  the  fact  that 
if  the  fundamentals  are  not  properly  handled  industrial  research  can  have 
but  a  limited  growth,  whereas  if  the  supply  of  capable  trained  men  is 
adequate  and  the  field  of  fundamental  research  properly  cultivated  many 


12  INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT 

of  the  problems  of  industrial  research  itself  which  now  appear  difficult 
of  solution  will,  in  a  large  measure,  take  care  of  themselves.  In  the 
second  place,  it  seemed  to  me  that  as  this  appreciation  is  not  local  to 
any  country  or  any  section,  a  statement  of  the  present  situation  in  the 
United  States  with  regard  to  the  methods  and  plans  now  under  way 
might  be  of  some  interest  in  Canada.  Whether  this  is  so  or  whether  the 
exact  arrangement  of  any  scheme  which  we  south  of  the  border  may 
work  out  will  be  applicable  to  Canadian  conditions,  I  am,  of  course,  in 
no  position  to  say. 

I  will  not  here  attempt  any  long  discussion  of  the  best  methods  for 
handling  industrial  research,  once  a  supply  of  properly  trained  investiga- 
tors is  assured.  There  was  a  time  when  the  proposition  of  having  the 
colleges,  universities  and  technical  schools  undertake  industrial  research 
on  a  very  large  scale  was  much  discussed.  Recently  such  discussion  has 
diminished,  largely  through  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  requirements 
for  successful  industrial  research  and  also,  I  think,  because  of  a  better 
appreciation  of  the  direction  in  which  the  research  energies  of  the  uni- 
versities can  be  most  effectively  directed  for  the  advancement  of  indus- 
trial research. 

Then  too  there  has  been  much  discussion  on  the  proposition  of  special- 
ized research  organizations  maintained  by  companies  or  collectively  by 
industries  versus  large  centralized  industrial  research  laboratories,  either 
governmental  or  private,  to  which  all  sorts  of  industrial  research  prob- 
lems can  be  brought  for  solution.  While  I  do  not  know  what  a  study  of 
the  conditions  in  Canada,  with  its  more  sparsely  settled  and  less  devel- 
oped industries,  might  lead  me  to  conclude,  I  think  that  in  the  United 
States  these  questions  are  in  a  fair  way  to  solve  themselves.  With  us  we 
have  a  condition  of  great  centralized  industries,  such  as  the  electrical 
manufacturing  companies,  the  telephone  and  telegraph  systems,  the 
steel  and  oil  industries  and  others  of  the  same  class,  each  one  of  which  is 
of  sufficient  size  to  maintain  adequately  a  large  and  well  rounded  out  re- 
search organization  competent  to  handle  any  of  the  numerous  problems 
which  present  themselves.  Next,  we  have  a  large  group  of  industries, 
the  individual  units  of  which  are  of  considerable  size  but  not  sufficiently 
large  to  justify  the  complete  research  staff  which  might  be  needed  to 
cover  all  of  the  problems.  For  this  class  the  tendency  seems  to  be 
toward  an  association  of  the  different  units  for  the  general  support  of  a 
research  organization  available  to  all  of  the  industries  and  to  which  will 
go  all  of  those  problems  which  are  of  general  interest  to  the  industry  as  a 
whole.  Finally,  there  is  a  great  mass  of  small  industries  and  businesses, 


INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  P.  B.  JEWETT  13 

no  one  of  which  could  hope  to  maintain  a  reseach  organization  and  which 
are  too  small  and  too  widely  scattered  to  permit  readily  of  associated 
efforts  such  as  those  just  outlined.  It  is  essential,  however,  that  each 
one  of  these  smaller  industries  be  accorded  the  advantages  which  accrue 
from  a  proper  solution  of  their  problems.  It  is  my  feeling  that  the  needs 
of  this  industrial  class  are  likely  to  be  met  through  the  establishment  of 
commercial  research  organizations  rather  widely  distributed  over  the 
country  and  tending  at  some  general  degree  to  a  specialization  effort. 
To  these  organizations  the  individual  industries  can  bring  their  problems 
for  solution,  much  in  the  same  way  as  they  now  go  to  consulting  engineers 
for  advice.  It  is,  of  course,  conceivable  that  this  service  might  be  ren- 
dered by  a  government  supported  research  organization  with  one  or 
many  laboratories.  There  are  large  difficulties  in  such  a  plan,  however, 
principal  among  which  would  be  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  as  high  a 
standard  of  scientific  and  technical  ability  as  could  be  maintained  in  a 
non-governmental  organization. 

But  whatever  the  final  solution  with  regard  to  the  care  of  the  smaller 
industries,  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  the  big  industrial  units,  or  the 
aggregation  of  units  of  the  second  class,  will  tend  to  make  little  or  no  use 
of  the  outside  laboratory,  be  it  private  or  governmental.  Their  problems 
are  so  large  and  so  intimately  connected  with  the  intricacies  of  their 
business  that  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  they  could  have  the  work  carried 
on  by  an  outside  organization  without,  in  effect,  making  that  organiza- 
tion a  part  of  the  industry. 

In  conclusion  I  should  like  to  present  for  your  consideration  a  few 
points  which  I  think  are  fundamental  to  the  successful  carrying  out  of 
any  broad  policy  of  industrial  research  growth  within  a  nation  and  a 
few  other  points  which  my  experience  has  taught  me  to  look  upon  as 
beacons  in  the  course  of  building  up  an  effective  and  smooth  running 
industrial  research  organization.  The  points  of  the  general  problem 
which  I  would  take  are: 

1.  That  no  extensive  and  successful  industrial  research  growth  can  be 
looked  for  unless  provision  is  made  for  a  continuing  supply  of  competent 
men  of  broad  general  training  and  a  specific  and  thorough  training  in  the 
methods  of  scientific  research. 

2.  That  coincident  with  the  growth  of  real  industrial  research  there 
must  be  a  corresponding  and  equal  growth  and  development  in  the 
domain  of  fundamental  scientific  research  which  will  broaden  the  bounds 
of  knowledge  and  open  up  new  avenues  for  the  industrial    research 
worker. 


14  INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT 

3.  That  there  must  be  education  to  develop  a  full  understanding  of 
the  material  and  economic  advantages  which  will  result  from  the  sup- 
planting of  the  purely  cut  and  try  inventive  type  of  growth  by  the  appli- 
cation of  scientific  research  methods  and  the  further  knowledge  that  a 
vigorous  and  healthy  growth  of  fundamental  scientific  research  is  an  in- 
tegral and  absolutely  necessary  part  of  the  problem.    In  the  one  case 
this  education  must  be  directed  toward  the  industrial  interests  for  the 
purpose  of  indicating  to  them  the  advantages  to  be  gained  by  an  aban- 
donment of  methods  which  are  not  in  accord  with  the  present  day  state 
of  world  knowledge  and  the  building  up  of  a  demand  for  the  right  type 
of  men,  and  in  the  other  case  toward  the  population  at  large  for  the  pur- 
pose of  instilling  an  appreciation  of  the  advantages  which  will  accrue  to 
the  nation  and  attracting  to  the  field  of  research,  whether  fundamental 
or  industrial,  a  larger  proportion  of  qualified  men;  also  for  the  purpose  of 
having  the  people  at  large  view  with  sympathy  a  reasonable  allotment 
of  general  funds  for  the  advancement  of  research  activities. 

4.  That  a  realization  of  all  of  the  foregoing  can  best  be  obtained  by  a 
close  cooperation  between  the  industrial  and  business  interests  of  the 
country  and  the  higher  educational  institutions,  which  are  already  looked 
upon  with  favor  by  educated  and  thinking  people,  and  from  which  must 
come  the  men  qualified  to  build  up  industrial  research. 

5.  That  whatever  the  scheme  finally  adopted  to  provide  for  an  expan- 
sion in  the  domain  of  fundamental  research  and  the  development  of  com- 
petent industrial  research  workers,  care  must  be  taken  to  insure  that 
pressure  from  the  industries  will  never  be  so  great  as  to  withdraw  those 
men  who  can  render  the  greatest  service  by  continuing  as  investigators  in 
the  field  of  pure  research  and  the  training  of  younger  men.     Such  a 
course  would  be  suicidal  if  long  continued  and  I  mention  the  point  be- 
cause of  the  fact  that  my  experience  indicates  a  considerable  tendency  on 
the  part  of  industries  who  have  benefited  from  industrial  research  to 
endeavor  to  attract  into  their  service  the  best  of  the  university  research 
men.     I  confess  that  the  temptation  to  do  this  is  very  great  and  that  the 
monetary  inducements  which  industry  can  offer  to  the  individual  are 
large  and  not  easily  to  be  withstood  by  a  man  whose  normal  human 
reaction  is  for  the  material  welfare  of  his  family. 

Finally,  as  to  those  specific  points  which  may  be  of  interest  to  anyone 
endeavoring  to  build  up  an  industrial  organization, 

1.  The  research  department  must  be  so  organized,  developed  and 
equipped  with  men  and  machinery  that  the  net  result,  direct  or  indirect, 
will  be  of  decided  monetary  value  to  the  industry.  Otherwise,  it  has  no 
reason  to  be. 


INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  F.  B.  JEWETT  15 

2.  The  present  state  of  the  art  is  such  that  a  large  number  of  the  prob- 
lems falling  within  the  field  of  the  industrial  research  laboratory  are 
inherently  expensive.    For  this  reason,  while  enormous  returns  may  be 
possible  from  the  successful  completion  of  any  line  of  research,  lack  of 
success  or  an  attempt  to  conduct  it  with  inefficient  help  will  mean  the 
waste  of  much  valuable  time  and  money.     For  these  reasons  the  choice 
of  the  staff  and  the  careful  consideration  of  all  of  the  factors  in  any  prob- 
lem are  of  the  utmost  importance. 

3.  That  successful  industrial  research  under  modern  conditions  is  es- 
sentially one  of  organization  and  group  working,  as  distinguished  from 
the  essentially  individualistic  work  of  fundamental  research.    For  this 
reason  extreme  care  must  be  taken  to  secure  competent  executives,  either 
from  the  ranks  of  those  whose  primary  training  has  been  along  research 
lines  and  who  have  shown  capacity  for  handling  men  and  complicated 
problems  or  from  those  of  executive  capacity  and  experience  who  have 
shown  a  proper  sympathy  for  the  requirements  of  research. 

4.  That  all  industry  tends  to  be  conservative  and  that  great  care 
must  be  taken  not  to  attempt  the  forced  growth  of  a  broad  industrial 
research  development  where  a  too  rapid  growth  will  engender  the  active 
opposition  of  those  who  have  been  educated  in  a  different  environment. 
My  experience  has  indicated  that  there  is  never  any  trouble  where  the 
proper  method  is  employed  but  that  there  is  always  trouble  if  the  so- 
called  practical  man  feels  that  the  proposed  new  methods  are  essentially 
a  reflection  on  his  ability  and  that  his  point  of  view  is  not  receiving  suf- 
ficient consideration.    As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  practical  man's  point  of 
view  and  his  knowledge,  gained  by  long  experience,  will  be  found  to  be 
one  of  the  chief  assets  of  the  successful  industrial  research  worker. 

5.  That  some  industries  are  much  more  conservative  in  their  attitude 
toward  the  adoption  of  modern  research  methods  than  others.    In  gen- 
eral, I  think  it  will  be  found  that  the  most  conservative  are  the  oldest 
and  are  those  industries  which  existed  long  before  the  science  of  their  art 
had  been  developed.    Because  of  the  fact  that  modern  electrical  and 
chemical  industries  have  grown  directly  from  pure  scientific  develop- 
ments, I  think  they  will  be  found  to  be  easier  fields  for  the  cultivation  of 
industrial  research  than  older  industries,  such  as  those  which  were  well 
developed  in  the  earlier  periods  of  human  affairs. 

6.  Finally,  a  most  important  point,  not  to  be  lost  sight  of  in  the  organi- 
zation of  a  successful  industrial  research  department,  is  the  fact  that 
many  very  capable  men  trained  for  industrial  research  are  essentially 
devoid  of  certain  commercial  attributes.     Many  of  them,  for  instance, 


16  INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH:  P.  B.  JEWETT 

fail  to  realize  that  on  a  large  number  of  their  problems  time  is  an  essential 
element  in  the  work,  while  others  fail  to  give  due  weight  to  that  phase 
of  the  work  which  lies  between  the  completion  of  the  research  activity 
and  the  introduction  of  the  results  into  commercial  manufacture  or  em- 
ployment under  modern  conditions  where  the  day  by  day  control  must, 
of  necessity,  be  largely  in  the  hands  of  those  who  are  not  highly  trained 
skilled  workers.  For  this  reason  it  is  essential  that  whoever  is  responsible 
for  the  direction  and  success  of  the  industrial  research  undertaking  should 
be  a  man  with  a  broad  outlook,  a  full  appreciation  of  all  of  the  factors  of 
the  business  problem  and  a  man  who  can  sympathize  with  and  appreciate 
the  varying  points  of  view  which  he  encounters  and  who  can  harmonize 
all  of  the  activities  into  a  smoothly-working  machine. 

In  closing  I  wish  merely  to  go  on  record  with  you  by  saying  that  after 
many  years  of  experience,  I  now,  as  an  executive  in  a  large  technical  or- 
ganization, am  more  than  ever  a  firm  believer  in  the  benefits  to  be  de- 
rived from  a  vigorous  stimulation  of  both  fundamental  and  industrial 
research,  benefits  which  I  believe  will  accrue  not  only  to  individual  in- 
dustries but  to  the  people  at  large  as  well.  It  seems  to  me  that,  provided 
we  have  proper  legislation  to  safeguard  a  just  distribution  of  the  benefits, 
we  have  in  industrial  research  a  most  valuable  means  for  ameliorating 
and  bettering  the  conditions  of  mankind. 


Bulletin  of  the  National  Research  Council 

Volume  1 

Number  1.  The  national  importance  of  scientific  and  industrial  research. 
By  George  Ellery  Hale  and  others.  Price  50  cents. 

Number  2.  Research  laboratories  in  industrial  establishments  of  the  United 
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Number  3.  Periodical  bibliographies  and  abstracts  for  the  scientific  and 
technological  journals  of  the  world.  Compiled  by  R.  Cobb.  (In  prep- 
aration.) 


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